The awards will celebrate the burgeoning animation scene across Ibero-America, which constitutes 20 countries in Central and South America, as well as Spain, Portugal, and Andorra in Europe. Appropriately, they are named in tribute to the creator of the first-ever feature-length animated film, the Italian-Argentinean Quirino Cristiani (pictured at top), who in 1917 directed El Apóstol.

The inaugural Quirinos received 273 entries from 14 countries. The countries that submitted the most pieces were Spain (38% of the entries), Brazil (15%), and Argentina (14%), Colombia (10%), and Mexico (8%). Submissions were also received from Chile, Ecuador, Portugal, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The work entered represents 60 hours of animation in total.

The category that received the most entries was short films, with 120 works submitted, followed by series (43 submissions), commissioned films (39 submissions), and feature films (21 submissions).

Six nominees in each of the event’s nine categories will be announced on January 17. Those categories are:

Feature film

Series

Short film

School short film

Innovative work

Commissioned film

Visual development

Animation design

Sound design and original music

After that, an international jury will whittle down the nominees to three finalists per category, and the final winners will be announced on April 7 at the awards ceremony in the Spanish city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the island of Tenerife (part of the Canary Islands).

The awards will take place as part of a two-day event that will also include a co-production and business forum aimed at forging links between Ibero-American producers and artists, as well as an international congress that will create a space for debate and reflection on contemporary animation production.

To learn more about the Quirinos including information on how to participate, visit the event’s official website.